"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." Oscar Wilde

Monday, November 24, 2008

Burundi abolishes death penalty, outlaws homosexuals

Burundi's parliament overwhelmingly agreed on Saturday to abolish the death penalty but homosexuals voiced outrage at a provision in the new penal law that makes them criminals.

The new set of laws overwhelmingly passed by MPs after a 14-hour session still needs to be approved by the Senate and promulgated by President Pierre Nkurunziza, both steps seen as a formality.

"I would like to thank the Burundian lawmakers who have achieved a historic landmark by adopting a new penal law by 90 votes for, no votes against and 10 abstentions," Speaker Pie Ntavyohanyuma said.

"It is a revolutionary penal law because it abolishes the death penalty for the first time in Burundi," MP and former justice minister Didace Kiganahe told AFP after the session, which ended in the small hours of Saturday.

Kiganahe, responsible for drafting the new law, explained that it also "incorporates provisions of international law against genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, which were not considered offences so far."

"This vote required some courage because the lawmakers voted in favour of abolishing the death penalty knowing that their electorate wanted to maintain it," he said.

But some lawmakers criticised the provision criminalising homosexuality, saying it had tarnished the legislation. "Unfortunately, this penal law is also a regression because it now makes homosexuality a criminal offence, whereas it had been tolerated until now," said MP Catherine Mabobori, who abstained during the vote.

The Association for the Respect of Homosexuals' Rights (ARDHO) protested vigorously. "We at ARDHO are outraged by this decision to criminalise homosexuality. We don't understand how educated people can adopt such a law because homosexuality is neither a disease nor a deviance," an official told AFP.

He was speaking on condition he not be named, citing "security reasons", ahead of a crisis meeting with the association's 35 members in Bujumbura. "How are we going to be able to continue the struggle against AIDS in our community if every homosexual has to go underground," he asked.

On the streets of Bujumbura, Bernard, a civil servant in his thirties, disapproved of the new law, arguing that Burundi was getting its priorities wrong.

"I don't think abolishing the death penalty was a priority. There are currently a lot of murders and thefts. Criminals should be punished harshly to fight against impunity," he said.

Gerard, a money changer in his fifties, charged that the "abolition of the death penalty was decided by people who are trying to protect themselves because they had a hand in the crimes that plagued this country."

Abolishing the death penalty was set as a condition by the United Nations for the creation of a truth and reconciliation commission and a special tribunal in the war-ravaged country.

Burundi is struggling to emerge from a civil war that has left at least 300,000 people dead since 1993. Its political institutions have been chronically crippled by internal wrangling.

Several hundred convicts have been sentenced to death in Burundi but the last executions were carried out in 1997. 3 men were hanged simultaneously, a Tutsi, a Hutu and a Twa "to avoid arousing ethnic resentment".

Under the new law, all prisoners currently on death row will see their sentences commuted to life jail terms.

Kiganahe said the new legislation, comprising 620 articles, also "introduces a raft of provisions aimed at protecting women and children against all forms of violence, notably sexual violence."

"Finally, it will also includes specific clauses criminalising torture because this heinous practice was not punishable in Burundian law until now," he added. The new criminal laws provide for jail terms ranging from 10 years to life for torture and from 20 years to life for rape.

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Texas Death Row is a disgrace to the state of Texas. Click on the photo above to view 50 recent annotated pictures of the "living' conditions" on Texas Death Row. These photos were provided by the State of Texas in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by attorney Yolanda Torres. These photos were eventually posted on Thomas Whitaker's blog, "Minutes Before Six". Mr. Whitaker is currently on Death Row in the state of Texas.

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The little we can do, the very little we can do, we must do; for honor's sake, yet without illusions.Théodore Monod

Whoever destroys a soul, it is considered as if he destroyed an entire world. And whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world.The Talmud

Civilization and violence are antithetical concepts. Through violence you may murder a murderer, but you can't murder murder. Through violence you may murder a liar, but you can't establish truth. Through violence you may murder a hater, but you can't murder hate. Darkness cannot put out darkness, only light can do that.Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted.Oscar Wilde

I am constantly amazed by man's inhumanity to man.Primo Levi

Capital punishment would be more effective as a preventive measure if it were administered prior to the crime.Woody Allen

I am not, sir, a bad person, though in all truth I am not lacking in reasons for being one. We are all born naked, and yet, as we begin to grow up, it pleases Destiny to vary us, as if we were made of wax. Then, we are all sent down various paths to the same end: death. Some men are ordered down a path lined with flowers, others are asked to advance along a road sown with thistles and prickly pears. The first gaze about serenely and in the aroma of their joyfulness they smile the smile of the innocent, while the latter writhe under the violent sun of the plain and knit their brows like varmints at bay. There is a world of difference between adorning one's flesh with rouge and eau-de-cologne and doing it with tattoos that later will never wear off.Camilo José Cela, The Family of Pascual Duarte

Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch'entrate.Dante, Inferno

An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.Mahatma Gandhi

It would take me a long time to understand how systems inflict pain and hardship in people's lives and to learn that being kind in an unjust system is not enough.Sister Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking

The worst in the worst is expecting the worst.Daniel Pennac

The justification for mercy has its roots not in merit, but in need. We don’t deserve mercy, we need it. I think all of us—the best and the worst—are in need of mercy, and it is only by showing mercy that, morally, we ourselves become entitled to receiving it. Bereft of mercy, our society would be impoverished and inhuman, for mercy is quintessentially a human quality, not found elsewhere in the natural world.

You can take away our names and replace them with numbers, cage and store us in conditions not even fit for your family dog, and exterminate us at your whim, but we are still human beings, capable of everything from love and beauty to violence and hate.Thomas B. Whitaker (Texas Death Row inmate #999522)

This is an execution, not surgery. Where does that come from, that you must find the method of execution that causes the least pain?Antonin Scalia, U.S. Supreme Court Justice, on why Kentucky's lethal injection protocol did not qualify as cruel and unusual and therefore was not unconstitutional.

Almost all my [Death Penalty] clients should have been taken out of their homes when they were children. They weren't. Nobody had any interest in them until, as a result of nobody's interest in them, they became menaces, at which point society did become interested, if only to kill them.David R. Dow, Texas Public Defender Service attorney